If your vehicle is economically repairable, you will have to decide whether to use the insurers' approved garage or a garage of your own choice.

Make sure that whichever garage you use, that you will have the use of a courtesy car, if not then we may be able to help, click here to find out about our: replacement vehicle service

The advantage of using an authorised garage is that they often have delegated authority to carry out the repairs, if use your own garage, the insurers may want their engineer to inspect the vehicle and agree the repair procedure with the garage before they will give the go ahead for the repairs to be done. It is a matter of opinion whether authorised repair garages are better or worse than garages that are not authorised.

Occasionally even after the car has been repaired, its residual value might be effected if it has had a lot of repair work done or if it was a prestige vehicle. In this case you may be able to claim an additional amount for this "diminution in value" but in most cases this does not apply.

If your vehicle is not economically repairable, it will be dealt with as a total loss.

If your car is dealt with as a total loss, you will get its market value immediately before the accident, less its residual salvage value (unless the insurer claims the salvage).

A total loss is where the cost of repairs is going to be more than it would cost the insurer to reimburse your total loss (or where the car physically cannot be repaired because it is so badly damaged). Example:

Repairs £3000

Salvage value £500

Pre-accident value £3200

In this case the cheapest way for you to be put back into your original position is for the insurer to declare your car a total loss, they would pay you £2700, which when added to the salvage value would give you £3200, enough to buy a comparable replacement vehicle. If the insurers had repaired the car, it would have cost them £3200 ie more than it costs to write it off!

The value of the vehicle before the accident is based on published price guides, its condition before the accident and its history. For on-line price guides see our Links section. To be honest the "book" prices are often disappointing for the average motorist who may be influenced by the price he or she paid for the car and or the sort of figure that a garage might pay in a part-exchange deal.

If you disagree with the engineer's valuation you can attempt to support your case by producing adverts for similar vehicles but do bear in mind advertised prices are "asking prices" and not necessarily selling prices.

Guide prices are often segmented into trade, private and retail prices.

The trade prices are the lowest and should be ignored as members of the public cannot buy at trade prices!

The private sale price is in the middle (ie these are vehicles advertised in the classified section or by "for sale" notices in the car window).

At the top end of the price range is the retail price, ie the price on the forecourt.

It is a mute point as to whether "private" or "retail prices" should be used to assess a total loss. We would argue that it is reasonable to insist on using a reputable garage rather than hawking the market; but to be fair, in the case of older/ lower value cars, the private deal price might be more appropriate as these cars tend to be sold privately anyway.

Motor Engineers categorise salvage wrecks under 4 categories A-D.

A - must be scrapped and cannot be safely repaired.

B - Again cannot be safely repaired under any circumstances but may have salvageable parts that can be re-used.

C - This vehicle can be safely repaired even though it has sustained heavy damage, but it might not be economically feasible to repair it, at a pinch it might be economically repairable using cheap/ second hand parts and cheap labour costs.

D - This car can be safely and economically repaired using either cheap/ second hand parts or cheap labour.

FAQs

1. I bought my car for £5000 but by the time of the accident it was only worth £2000, I took out a loan for £5000 to buy the car and will be out of pocket by £3000 to clear the loan. Can I claim this.

No- your loss is caused by depreciation and not the accident. The value of the car at the time of the accident is what counts. If you took out Gap insurance, this might cover the shortfall.

2. The insurers say my car is a total loss and that it was worth £2000. Can I insist that they supply to me a similar replacement vehicle rather than making a cash payment.

No

3. I had had my car for years, it was only worth £200 but it was in superb mechanical condition, there is no way I can find something as reliable as my old car for just £200, the car I want to buy is going to cost £2000, can I claim the difference?

No, you can only claim for extra costs in getting a better vehicle if there are very exceptional reasons eg you suffer a disabling injury in the accident and need to purchase a more expensive automatic car.

4. My car had an LPG conversion that had cost me £500 to fit, but the insurers' engineer says that this would not have made much real difference to the value of my car on the open market, and he will only offer £150 extra on the book price. Can I claim the £350 difference?

Yes. You are entitled to be put back in to the position you were in before the accident. It is unlikely that you will be able to source an LPG vehicle at the book price so you will have to pay for a petrol car and then pay for its conversion, so rightly you can claim for the full cost of converting the replacement vehicle!

5. I had 14 inch alloys on my old car, I could not find the same exact make and model car and the old alloys won't fit on my new car, can I claim for the cost of a new set of alloys?

In principle yes, but you might have to give some allowance for the fact that you are replacing "old for new" (unless of course you can buy some second hand alloys!).

6. The Defendant is currently denying liability and my motor insurance has come up for renewal, my motor insurers have reduced my No Claims Bonus, this is going to make my annual motor insurance £200 dearer, do I need to make a claim for this?

Generally not. You are right that unless you paid extra to "protect your bonus", your insurers will step back your bonus (usually by 2 years per claim). But when you win your case and establish full liability against the third party, your insurers will reinstate your bonus and refund any overpaid insurance premium. However it may be an idea to stick with the same insurer until the claim is fully resolved because it can be time consuming to get a new insurers' bonus records amended as and when the old insurer is finally able to clear the present claim off your records!

7. My car was off the road for a couple of weeks but I did not get a replacement courtesy car. It was awfully inconvenient for me as I had to take trains. buses and taxis, and miss out on some of things I normally do. Can I claim for this?

Yes, normally about £10 per day plus your extra travel costs if you can produce receipts to prove these.

For a handy "year of vehicle registration look-up guide" *CLICK HERE*

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